Most of electronic devices have cables such as power cables or signal cables no matter what functions they have. The power cables can be utilized to transfer electric energy to the electronic devices while the signal cables can be employed to transfer signals to the electronic devices. The cables can be combined with the electronic devices in many ways, which can be generally divided into a detachable design and a non-detachable design.
The cable has to be detachable from the electronic device in the detachable design, where one end of the cable is designed as a plug and a socket which matches the plug is disposed in the electronic device, such that the plug may be inserted into the socket to combine the cable with the electronic device. The position in which the plug is disposed in the electronic device has to fit the configuration of the electronic components in the electronic device.
The cable is fixed on the electronic device in the non-detachable design and is not detachable from the electronic device, where a joint portion is designed on one end of the cable and the electronic device includes an upper housing and a lower housing. An upper joint notch and a lower joint notch are disposed in the upper housing and the lower housing correspondingly and respectively, such that the upper housing and the lower housing can be assembled to render the joint portion of the cable to be sandwiched between the upper joint notch and the lower joint notch. The position in which the cable is fixed in the electronic device only can be the position in which the upper housing is combined with the lower housing.
The electronic device with the conventional non-detachable design has a largely limited appearance because the cable is fixed on the assembling position in which the upper housing is combined with the lower housing. For instance, if it is desired that the cable cannot be easily seen on the appearance of the electronic device and the cable is combined with the bottom of the electronic device (the bottom of the lower housing), only the plug-socket design can be applied. However, if the cable needs not to be detachable from the electronic device, the plug-socket design will increase the manufacturing cost. To overcome this problem, some manufacturer disposes outer threads on the joint portion of the cable. After the cable passes through a circular through hole in the lower housing, a nut with an outer diameter larger than that of the circular through hole engages the outer thread of the joint portion, so as to combine the cable with the lower housing. However, the nut-outer thread design will cause additional assembling procedures and tools have to be employed to assemble them, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost.